ADDED: Wonder what the Federal Election Commission thinks about this? This is a terrible thing Sony’s doing, using the bravery of these men to help Obama – politicizing their heroism. The decent thing to do is to move the release date well into December.

Screenwriter Mark Boal with director Kathryn Bigelow

Our utter failure of a president is looking to Hollywood for an October 2012 Surprise to save his hopes for a second term. Maureen Dowd says out loud what we all knew the moment the movie’s release date was announced:

The White House is also counting on the Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal big-screen version of the killing of Bin Laden to counter Obama’s growing reputation as ineffectual. The Sony film by the Oscar-winning pair who made “The Hurt Locker” will no doubt reflect the president’s cool, gutsy decision against shaky odds. Just as Obamaland was hoping, the movie is scheduled to open on Oct. 12, 2012 — perfectly timed to give a home-stretch boost to a campaign that has grown tougher.

The moviemakers are getting top-level access to the most classified mission in history from an administration that has tried to throw more people in jail for leaking classified information than the Bush administration.

It was clear that the White House had outsourced the job of manning up the president’s image to Hollywood when Boal got welcomed to the upper echelons of the White House and the Pentagon and showed up recently — to the surprise of some military officers — at a C.I.A. ceremony celebrating the hero Seals.

“To the surprise of some military officers.” There’s an interesting statement.

So the White House gives filmmakers Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal all kinds of exclusive access and what does President Downgrade gets in return – between production costs ($25 – $30 million) and advertising — is a $50 -$75 million in-kind political contribution from Hollywood set to hit theatres just a few weeks prior to the November 6 election.